Nurse suspended for occupational health confidentiality breach

An OH nurse has been suspended by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) for breaches of data confidentiality.

Shudwin Chireka, an OH adviser at Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, was given a six-month suspension and an 18-month “interim” suspension after an NMC hearing in February heard he had had an unencrypted memory stick in a computer containing identifiable clinical information

In early 2013, he sent unencrypted emails to his own email address and to that of a senior OH adviser, again containing identifiable clinical information, the NMC said

He also informed the NMC that he was unemployed when he was, in fact, still working at the trust, and failed to inform agencies that he was subject to an NMC investigation. Chireka, the NMC heard, had accepted the misconduct of his actions, but the NMC added that it was necessary to make a suspension order “to mark the importance of maintaining public confidence in the profession, and to send to the public and the profession a clear message about the standard of behaviour required of a registered nurse”.